Cuyahoga County fire district feasibility continues

WESTSHORE — Four cities in Cuyahoga County continue to consider the merits of establishing a regional fire district.
Bay Village, Westlake, Fairview Park and Rocky River recently received a $100,000 local government innovation fund grant to hire someone to manage the second phase of a regional fire district feasibility study.
Rocky River Mayor Pamela Bobst said the four cities, along with North Olmsted, Lakewood and North Ridgeville, began the feasibility study after receiving an initial $100,000 grant in 2008 through EfficientGovNetwork to explore operations consolidations for fire, EMS and related services.
The first phase, finished in 2010, found that the seven cities would realize about $600,000 in savings through creation of a regional fire district, Bobst said, while also highlighting that each already collaborates to a certain degree while providing high levels of service.
North Olmsted, Lakewood and North Ridgeville dropped out of the process after the 2010 study was completed, Bobst said, but the remaining four cities have continued feasibility discussions.
“Everybody has been at the table talking about what we can do and how to implement this,” Bobst said of creating a regional fire district. “One of the things we determined is we really need someone to direct this process who is knowledgeable about fire service because the chiefs and mayors already have a full plate.”
The latest $100,000 grant will bring this to fruition. Bay Village Fire Chief Christopher Lyons said whoever is hired will examine the practical challenges the cities might face in creating a regional fire district.
“As to where this will end up is anybody’s guess,” Lyons said. “But I think the four cities are trying to approach this with as open of a mind as possible.”
Lyons said the ultimate goal is to have the hired person determine whether or not potential benefits of regionalization outweigh liabilities. He said the four departments already collaborate through central dispatch, mutual aid, automatic aid response, specialty rescue operations and fire investigations.
But where things get trickier is aligning unions and personnel with different identities and different sets of contracts.
“The greatest assets and resources of any department are the people,” Lyons said. “But the greatest challenges are also the people. You’ve got four different departments with four separate traditions, cultures, communities and specific identities.
“Change can be upsetting for folks even if there are possible benefits. Getting past those separate identities can be a challenge.”
The cities have already been sitting down for discussions as members of a Joint Implementation Committee, which includes the mayors, fire chiefs and union representatives of each city, Lyons said.
Bobst said the potential for a regional fire district ultimately rests on two factors — cost savings and level of service.
“This has to enhance and expand services to our residents at the same cost, or continue to provide the same high level of service at a reduced cost,” Bobst said.
And establishment of a brick-and-mortar regional fire district may not ultimately be what is best for individual cities, she said.
“My first goal is not establishing a fire district and I’ve been clear about this with the other mayors,” Bobst said. “My number one goal is to create greater efficiencies in the way we deliver EMS service to our residents. If in doing that it makes sense to consolidate in some structural way I’m willing to have that conversation.”
The governments of Bay Village, Fairview Park, Rocky River and Westlake will now each vote to accept or decline the $100,000 in grant money. They will also have to create a specific job description for the phase two project manager.